The Virgin Birth Through Joseph's Eyes

So if you want to turn to Matthew chapter one. that would help you in following along, this morning. Matthew 1, and we'll be looking at verses 18 through 25. Let me start with the question, what would you do?

What would you do if God came to you? And Asked you or called upon you to believe and to act upon something that had never before happened in the history of the world. Thousands of years of human history, this has never happened, but God's telling you it happened, and I want you to believe it and act upon it. And it's also something that not only has never happened, but it totally does not fit with your reasoning, anything that you would have arrived at with your own reasoning, thinking capacities.

it's also something that's just frankly, the reason it's never happened in human history is because it's not humanly possible, apart from the miraculous. And he's also calling upon you to believe, to embrace, and to act upon. Something that from the outset that many people are not going to believe and it's going to prove to be a stumbling block to them. Would you believe And would you act upon that belief?

That is exactly the opportunity. that Joseph is confronted with in Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. And we're gonna look at this section of Matthew 1 and observe what that opportunity looked like for him, the struggle that was involved in that, what God did to bring him to a right place. In that, and what Joseph did by way of responding to God to where he ended up in a really beautiful place by the end of Matthew chapter 1, verse 25, a place of belief and acting boldly and decisively upon this thing that God had announced to him.

Of course, we're talking about the virgin birth, the virgin conception and birth of of Jesus Christ. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be the Virgin Birth, the Virgin conception and birth through Joseph's eyes. And Luke's Gospel, we have the birth account, and that's more from Mary's perspective and Matthew, we get the story more from Joseph's perspective. We literally get to experience the reality of the virgin conception and birth of Jesus from Joseph's perspective here in Matthew chapter 1.

Let me read this narrative to you beginning in verse 18. So now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name. Jesus. I hope you understand that the doctrine or the teaching of the virgin conception.

And birth of Jesus is not some obscure. doctrine that's not really taught in Scripture, but a bunch of Christians got together and they did some reading between the lines, and came up with this doctrine that can barely be justified by what's revealed in the text of the Bible. The reality of the virgin conception and birth of Jesus is overwhelmingly clearly taught. In Luke and Matthew.

Luke and Matthew are the only two gospel writers that talk about the birth of Christ. And in both of those accounts, they make it very clear that not only was Christ's adult life truly exceptional, but his birth was utterly exceptional. When the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and says, You're going to have a son. In Luke's Gospel, Mary says, How can this be since I am a virgin?

And then the angel says, Here's what's going to happen. The Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High is going to come upon you, and a conception will occur, and for that reason, the child in your womb will be called the Son of the Most High God. It's very clear that this is a miraculous conception. And even here in Matthew 1.

You, you look at how many times it's being indicated that this is something special and miraculous. just look at this real quick in verse 18. Now the birth of Christ was as follows when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together. So this is before Joseph and Mary physically came together.

that this happened. She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, not by Joseph, not by any man, but by the Spirit of God. Verse 20 the child who has been conceived in her, the angel says to Joseph, is of the Holy Spirit. And then in case it's not been clear enough, verse 23, the angel quotes from Isaiah 7:14, and says, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall have a son.

And then in verse 25, after Joseph takes Mary to be his wife, it says, and he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Just in these few verses, 5 times we have. An indication, making it very clear that the claim is being made that Jesus was conceived. Miraculously in the womb of a woman that had never been with a man.

And so whether you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus or not, let's at least be honest and admit that that's exactly what the scripture teaches though, right? The Bible is teaching that he was conceived in the womb of a virgin and born of a virgin as well. This is a very important, reality, it's a very important doctrine. if, if it is true that Jesus was truly virgin born, that really does change everything, doesn't it?

That, that's radical. Larry King, you guys know who Larry King is. I think he's retired now, but it was a broadcaster for CNN. He was asked several years ago, like if you could interview anybody.

from history, who would you want to interview? If you had one interview of anyone who lived throughout human history, who would you want to interview? And his answer was Jesus Christ. I would want to interview him.

And then he went on to explain what he most would want to know in that interview. Listen to what he said. I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin born. That would be, that's the burning question in Larry King's mind of what he would want to know.

Why would he want to know that? He goes on to say this, the answer to that question would define history for me. Larry King is by no means a Christian man, but he gets it exactly right here. If Jesus was miraculously conceived in the womb of a virgin, that changes everything.

It defines history for all of us. Every human being who thinks at all is asking what we would consider to be the most fundamental religious questions that every human being asks, whether someone fashions themselves as religious or not. Everybody is asking these questions, and everybody has an answer to these fundamental questions. The questions are where did we come from?

What has gone wrong with me and with the world I live in, everyone knows something's wrong. And so where did we come from? And what is wrong with me and with this world that I live in? And what is the solution?

What is the solution? Everybody's asking those questions. Everybody, even the atheists, has an answer to those fundamental religious questions tied to those three questions is probably the greatest question of all, and that is, who do we listen to? As I try to find the answer to these questions, who should I listen to, to get the answer?

There's a lot of people in our world today and throughout history, who would say, please, let me answer these questions for you. And so there are many people who would love to answer these questions for you and for me. Who should we listen to? Well, I think part of what Larry King is indicating is if it is true, that Jesus was miraculously conceived in the womb of a virgin.

That would entitle him to be the one who gets to define history. It would entitle him to be the one who gets to answer these questions for us, right? If Jesus was truly virgin born, then of all the people I might want to talk to and hear from, I would want most of all to hear from this virgin born person, as he tells me where I came from. And as he tells me what's wrong with me and with the world, and as he tells me what that solution is to what is wrong with me, and with the world.

Does that make sense? Now, because the doctrine of the virgin conception and birth of Jesus is so fundamental, and staggering in its ramifications, it's not surprising that those who posture themselves against Christ and against Christianity will go after the virgin birth. They don't leave that untouched. They go after that because if he truly was virgin born, that gives Jesus a whole lot of say and a whole lot of influence.

And answering life's fundamental questions. And so they go after, amongst other things, the Bible's teaching on the virgin birth. I am sure that none of you woke up this morning, And thought, I wonder what Bill Mauer and Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins say about the virgin birth of Christ. I don't think any of you were asking that this morning, but I'm gonna answer that for you.

Listen to what these guys who posture themselves against Christ and against Christianity have to say about the Bible's teaching regarding the virgin birth. Bill Mauer says this, I believed in Santa Claus and the fairy godmother. Of course, I believed in a virgin birth and a guy lived in a whale and a woman came from a rib, but then something happened that made me doubt all of it. I graduated 6th grade.

What he's saying is that belief in the virgin birth belongs in the same category as belief in Santa Claus and the fairy godmother, and it's something that anyone entering into their teen years needs to realize that it's time to grow beyond that. Christopher Hitchens, the anti-theist. Says, I no more believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary than I believe that Krishna was born of the virgin Dea. Horace was born of the virgin Isis.

Mercury was born of the virgin Maya, or Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Silvia. Christianity insults our intelligence, as well as our innate morality by insisting that we believe absurdities. He would say that the Bible's teaching here in Matthew 1 that Christ was virgin born is an absurdity that is not to believe, to be believed. It's an insult to our intelligence.

Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion, says this, the 19th century is the last time when it was possible for an educated person to admit to believing in miracles like the virgin birth without embarrassment. He's saying is we've evolved as a species to the point where belief in notions like the virgin birth of Christ, it's time to lay that aside. you cannot be educated and believe that. Without embarrassment, he says.

So there are many who would attack the virgin birth and say that it did not happen. They will belittle it and call it an absurdity, a fantasy. And then there are others who their way of dealing with it is they just ignore the reality of the virgin birth. They just don't talk about it.

They just don't deal with it. And there are sadly some who are even professing the name of Christ who actually are guilty of this. Several years ago, a pastor of a church here in Southern California was on a radio program, and he was asked if he believed in the virgin birth. This pastor, who I'll keep nameless here, this pastor gave this answer.

He says, I cannot in print or in public deny the virgin birth of Christ, but neither can I preach it or teach it. When I have something I can't comprehend, I just don't deal with it. This pastor is robbing his congregation. He's robbing himself.

If all you do is draw a circle around what you rationally can comprehend, you and, and you won't believe anything outside of that or beyond that, you thereby are divorcing yourself from many of the claims that are made in Scripture. And you end up with a religion that's no bigger than your pea-sized brain. is that really what you want at the end of the day? A religion that fits neatly inside of your pea-sized finite brain.

I can't imagine anybody settling for that. If they really think about it. There are things that God calls you to believe, and me to believe in His word, that our reasoning would never arrive at unaided by divine revelation, and the help or the illumination of the Spirit of God. And the reality of the virgin conception and birth of Christ is one such example.

Of that. And we actually see this happening in Joseph's heart and mind in Matthew chapter one. What we're gonna do this morning with the time that we have is we're just going to contemplate, we're going to examine and observe the journey that Joseph went on, as he encountered the fact of the virgin conception. of Jesus in the womb of, of Mary, and how he interacted with that, how he dealt with that.

think about it. If you're here this morning, and you're like, man, I, I wonder if this is true or not, it would seem like a safe place to go to at least start your investigation would be to ask, I wonder what the guy that Mary was engaged to thought. he was experiencing this very close up and witnessing this firsthand. What did he think?

How did he process this occurrence in the womb of Mary? What were his thoughts? What were his feelings, and where did he end up as he processed all of that? I would think that we would at least be intrigued enough to want to know what Joseph thought of this.

And so we'll do that this morning. Matthew provides us a glimpse of this. We'll observe three stages of Joseph's response to the virgin conception, and ultimately the virgin birth of Christ. First of all, look at what Joseph encounters.

He encounters the reality. of the virgin conception of Jesus. It says now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

He says they were betrothed. When you think of being betrothed, just think of modern day engagement on steroids. OK, nowadays, a guy will ask a gal, Will you marry me? And she says, Yes, I will.

And he'll put a ring on her finger and then he'll post the video on Facebook of him having asked her and her amazed, surprised response. And so they, she's made a promise to him, but he's not really made a promise to her. He just asked, Will you marry me? And she says, Yes, I will.

And so she gets a ring for just saying yes. And then they set about preparing for the actual marriage. Back in this day. it was a little more complex and intense.

What would have happened is Joseph and Mary would have come together in a ceremony and made their vows, full on marital vows to each other, and that began the engagement period. But after the vows were said in that ceremony, instead of going on their honeymoon, they both went home. To their parents. how's that for the end of a day where you're saying marital vows?

They would go home to their respective families and begin the process of preparing for their lifetime together that would happen months later, and it's when they would come together months later living in the same home that they would consummate that covenant. With physical intimacy. But in the eyes of the law, that engagement period that Joseph and Mary are in right now as they're betrothed to one another, legally, they're husband and wife, already, the only thing that's missing is they're not living together.

And they've not been physically intimate with one another.

That will come later. And so it says that when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by The Holy Spirit. So the miracle had occurred. Jesus is in her womb, miraculously, she is with child by the Holy Spirit.

Now, how does Joseph interact with this? Well, there's 3 stages that we will observe as he responds. To this occurrence. And the first stage is that Joseph's, let's say it this way, stage one, Joseph's own reasoning fails to tell him that a virgin conception had occurred.

Joseph encounters the reality. And trust me, he puts a lot of thought into this, and puts his reasoning to good use. But in all of the thinking that he put into this, his mind, his reasoning, never told him that this was a miraculous conception. It says, and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to send her away secretly.

In a nutshell, we learned two things about Joseph here that are pretty cool. Number 1, he was a righteous man. And number 2, he was a merciful man. Like it says, being a righteous man, he wanted to divorce her.

That's what send away means. Being righteous, he wanted to divorce her. But he also did not want to disgrace her. So he was deciding, I think I know what I'll do, I'll divorce her secretly, as discreetly as possible, so as not to bring public humiliation and shame to Mary.

In the Old Testament, in the Book of Deuteronomy, there's actually a provision made for what to do during this time period in the relationship. The covenant has been made, but the husband and wife, they're in that engagement betrothal period. If the wife is discovered to have been unfaithful during that time period, not only was the husband given the right to divorce her, but it was the righteous thing to do. In fact, stoning for the woman was an option.

At that point, so this is very, very serious here. And so Joseph is a righteous man, and being a righteous man, he's like, I can't marry her. She has not been true to the vows that we have made to one another, but I don't want to publicly humiliate her. I could do this.

I could publicly shame her, but I don't want to do that. And so how can I divorce her and bring an end to this marital union? and do it discreetly in a way that saves face, that does not bring public shame to Mary. As John MacArthur says, Joseph knew that he was not the father and assumed quite naturally that Mary had had relations with another man.

Joseph is thinking and his thinking is totally understandable. Mary is my wife. She's pregnant. I've never physically been with her to cause her to be pregnant.

Therefore, she obviously has been with another man. That's perfectly defensible, rational thinking, right? But was it right No, it wasn't right. Look at what it says in verse 20.

It says, but when he had considered this, and we'll get to what happens next in a moment, but what Matthew is telling us is that Joseph is considering this. So he's already decided, I think what I need to do is divorce her, but I will do it privately and discreetly, but he still seems paralyzed. He can't bring himself to act upon this, and it says that he was considering this. And I just want you to understand that the Greek word that is translated considered here is a very intense word.

It's the word, it's the Greek word for anger. With the word the preposition upon attached to the beginning of it, it literally means to think upon something about which one has very passionate feelings. Joseph is hurting right now. Imagine yourself, men, in this situation.

I think sometimes we think these biblical characters are like two dimensional characters who know what's going on. Like Joseph would see, oh, she's pregnant, and this is the Christmas story that's beginning to unfold, and this is going to be in Matthew chapter 11 day, and I get to be in the Christmas narrative that generations will read about. That's not what he's thinking. He's like, this is my wife that I'm pledged to, she's pledged to me.

I've, I've sought to be pure, we have not been together physically, and yet she's pregnant. She's been with another man, she's been unfaithful to me. And so there's anger, there's deep passion and feeling. Joseph is devastated, his dreams are shattered.

This lifetime with this woman that I have loved is not going to happen. The righteous thing is for it not to happen. At this point, he's feeling stung by her apparent betrayal. He's confused.

Everything I know about Mary, it doesn't fit with what it seems like she has done. And so he's thinking upon this with very passionate feelings. And we also know from verse 20, that he was experiencing fear. He was afraid at this point to take Mary to be his wife.

He's afraid. I don't think he cared about what other people thought. But he was afraid of displeasing God. By marrying this unfaithful woman.

And so imagine the turmoil, the, the emotions roiling inside of his being as he's trying to process. She's pregnant. I've not been with her. So the only way I can look at this is she's been with another man, she's been unfaithful.

Our marriage is going to need to end. And so he's agitating over this, and he goes to bed. and falls asleep. Before we look at the next stage, I just want to challenge you guys that, Christianity is indeed a religion of the mind.

If there ever was a religion of the mind, it's Christianity. We are called throughout Scripture to seek after wisdom. To chase after wisdom as for hidden treasure, we are called to think deeply, to gird up the loins of our minds. We're called in Romans 12 to think and to think sanely.

We're actually commanded in Scripture to not be insane. In our thinking we're called to meditate. And so the Bible throughout calls us as Christians to rigorous intellectual engagement to think deeply, engaging in rigorous thought. And yet the same Bible that calls us to that, that tells us, hey, God's given you the gift of reason.

And God wants you to use that gift thoroughly and properly, the same Bible that tells us that. is the Bible that also tells us That reason alone will never get you to God. Never The same Bible tells us that You are not to lean upon your own understanding. The same Bible tells us there are times when you're going to be in your own mind absolutely persuaded that something is true and it's absolutely untrue.

Where you are looking at a possible action, and you're like, this way seems so right to me. The Bible says there are times where it's going to seem so right to do something, and yet it is so wrong, and it leads to heartache and to death. And so this Bible that tells us to engage in rigorous intellectual thought is the same Bible that says, do not lean on your own understanding. And if you're living your life each day, and you're not seeking revelation from God, from this virgin born one, what do you say, Jesus, how do you want me to live today if all you're doing is getting up and, and you already think you've got a head full of wisdom, and you're just following what seems right to you, and you're getting input from everybody else other than Jesus.

You will never get to God. You will never get to God. Joseph is a righteous man, his mind is thoroughly saturated, even with Scripture. And yet as he looks at this phenomena of this miraculous conception that's happened in the womb of the woman that he's engaged to, he's thinking about it.

No one's ever thought about this reality more than Joseph has. And yet with all of his thinking, his reason never told him the truth of what was happening in her womb. That brings us to the second stage. Joseph, as he goes to sleep that night agitating, was a man who had reached the edges of his reason, and he stood in need for divine revelation, as we all do.

So the second stage here of Joseph's dealing with and responding to the virgin conception of Jesus is that Joseph receives revelation from God that tells him that a virgin conception had occurred. He receives revelation telling him, hey, Joseph, what your own reasoning did not arrive at, let me tell you. What has truly happened. It says in verse 20 but when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.

So behold, this is a surprising development. Joseph did not go to bed that night and say, what, I'm going to have an angel appear to me. He wasn't expecting this. It was a surprising development.

And notice the language. It doesn't say he dreamed that an angel appeared to him. I've had a lot of dreams of a lot of things appearing and happening. But they didn't really happen.

Notice the language here. It says an angel of the Lord appeared to him. In the context of a dream. Saying, Joseph, son of David.

Now already Joseph would know, whoa, this is amazing. I got an angel talking to me. And he's talking to me in pretty exalted language here. Joseph, no doubt was used to being called Joseph, or Joe.

or Joseph, son of Jacob, that was his father's name, but Joseph, son of David. Yeah, David was his ancestor. But wow, that's a pretty exalted title. Joseph would know there's something going down here, where that is truly messianic in its import.

Something's going to be told to me and asked of me that has very significant messianic implications. Joseph is about to be asked to believe something really great, that is messianic in its nature, and to do something really great. And Joseph would know that just by the way the angel greets him, Joseph, son of David, do not or literally stop being afraid to take Mary as your wife. Joseph, I'm here from God as God's messenger to let, you have nothing to be afraid of.

Don't be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of Stop right there for a second. Imagine how riveted Joseph would be. At this point, The child that is in her is of or from. Joseph, no one would have cared about this more than Joseph.

Where did this baby come from? But instead of giving the name of some man who had been with Mary, the angel says the child that has been conceived in her is from or of the Holy Spirit. Wow. And not only that, but this child in her is going to come to full term.

Through the nine months of pregnancy, verse 21, and she will give birth, and she will give birth to a son. And when that son is 8 days old and undergoes his circumcision, which is the point in which the name would be given to the child, The angel says to Joseph, you, Joseph, shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Understand naming someone back in this day was a show of authority, dominion, and responsibility. He's telling Joseph, even though you're biologically not the father of this one in Mary's womb, I'm calling you to name him.

I want you to assume responsibility for him. I want you to take him as your own. I want you to be an earthly father to him. I want you to bring him up.

As if he were your own. I want you, Joseph, this is what I'm asking of you. I want you to name him. So he's not just saying take Mary as your wife.

The angel is also saying from God, Joseph, take Mary as your wife, and take this boy as your own. Give him a name. And here's what I want you, Joseph, to name him, and I want you to be a father. To him Imagine Just those few words of revelation.

How The distance that that would move Joseph in his journey to understanding this, he goes to bed thinking, my wife's betrayed me. She's been unfaithful. She's pregnant because of some, she's been with some other man. And that what I've dreamed of a life together with her is shattered.

We're not going to get married. This is going to end in divorce. This is going to be a disgrace. He goes to bed, a broken man.

If Joseph were here, he would say that day was the lowest point in my life. And he goes to bed And God appears to him basically through the angel and just speaks a few words of revelation. And just after a few words of revelation from God, where is Joseph now? He went to bed devastated.

Now he's realizing, my wife has not been unfaithful to me. The child in her womb has been miraculously conceived through the Holy Spirit. This child is going to come to full term and be born. This child is actually going to grow up and be a savior who is going to save me and all people from their sins.

This child in her womb is the Messiah. So from point A to point B, going to bed thinking my wife's been unfaithful, and I'm gonna have to separate from her to where now she's not been unfaithful. She's been true to me. Something miraculous and amazing has occurred in her womb.

And the Messiah is in the womb of the woman that I'm engaged to. Wow. That's amazing. And not only that, but the angel says something else to Joseph.

Now, some of the translations that you have, stopped the angel's quote here, and then they have Matthew insert, inserting commentary saying, hey, now let me explain to you something. This happened to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah said. But commentators, many of them, and I would agree with them, would say, in verse 22 and 23, the angel is still talking to Joseph. This isn't Matthew talking to you and me as the reader.

This is the angel still talking to Joseph. and I believe this because Joseph could have awakened that morning and said, Man, I had an amazing dream. An angel appeared to me and said this and that. And Joseph would have not had anything solid to hang his hat on.

He would have been like, Yeah, that was an amazing dream, but Did I just eat something weird before I went to bed? Was that of God or was it not? God knew Joseph needed something solid. And so in that dream as the angel speaks to him, the angel points to a scripture.

And says, Joseph, what I've just told you is that scripture fulfilled. That's something solid that Joseph could take to the bank. So the angel says to Joseph, now all of this has happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. This is from Isaiah 7:14.

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. I would imagine Joseph awakened the next day and went down to the local synagogue and said to the rabbi, Where is this found? If he didn't already know it, could I get the scroll of wherever this is found? And he would have pulled that out and probably had a conversation with that rabbi, and Joseph would have read that, Behold, the virgin shall be with child.

The virgin shall be with child, and the virgin shall bear a son. What was foretold over 700 years ago is happening now in my day. And not only that, but it's happening to the woman that I'm engaged to. And I'm the one who's being asked to name him.

How amazing this must have been for him. Joseph thinks deeply about what's happening, but his own reasoning fails to tell him that a virgin conception had occurred. But then Joseph receives revelation from God that tells him that indeed a virgin conception has occurred. Now Joseph has a dilemma, right?

And the dilemma is this, my reasoning has told me that this is what's happening. But I've just received revelation from God, telling me something very different than what I was thinking. And so Joseph is at a crossroads. Which way is he going to go?

Is he going to say, what, I'm going to stick with my own thinking, my own reasoning, or is he going to follow God's revelation? And that brings us to the third and final stage of Joseph's response to the virgin conception of Jesus, and that is Joseph follows God's revelation rather than his own reasoning about the virgin conception. It says, and Joseph awoke from his sleep. And there's a feeling of immediacy here.

He awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife. It seems like he got up that morning. And that very day, he went over to Mary and said, what, Mary, I'm going to take you to be my wife. I want you to come and live with me.

Let's be husband and wife. I'm not going to divorce you. I'm not going to put you away. I embrace you.

God has shown me what's going on, and let's be husband and wife living together in this way. And I'm sure Mary was, I'm sure there were conversations between the two of them, and maybe she tried to explain it to him, but, how do you process that? And Mary had to just leave it in the Lord's hands. Lord, I'm just going to leave Joseph in your hands.

You're going to have to show him. And God shows up and does show him. And so Joseph shows up at her house, probably the next day, a changed man saying, I want to marry you. I want to marry you.

And so he took Mary as his wife. But look what it says, he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. And he called, he, Joseph, called him Jesus. By the way, have you ever wondered why it says he kept her a virgin?

Until she gave birth. The reason is, and this is part of why I think the angel was the one who told him about Isaiah 7:14 in the dream. It's because in Isaiah 7:14, it says a virgin shall conceive. And literally a virgin shall give birth.

It's the same subject. The virgin shall conceive and give birth. And so Joseph would know this prophecy is not only prophesying of the virgin conception of the Messiah, but that the Messiah would also be born. of a virgin.

And so he kept her a virgin until Jesus was born, and implied in that is that after he was born, Joseph no longer kept her. A virgin. And so we're not surprised later in the gospel accounts to find out that Jesus had brothers and sisters. So Joseph believes the angel.

He obeys the angel and not being afraid, he takes Mary as his wife. He kept her a virgin in obedience to what the angel told him to do, he called. His name Jesus. When faced with a choice, do I follow my own reasoning or do I follow God's revelation?

Joseph chose to follow God's revelation, even though it contradicted his reasoning. Let me just make a couple real quick points as we wrap things up this morning. Here's one, how's this? When God says something that contradicts you, he's right, and you're wrong.

if he tells you something, and you hear it, and you're like, actually, that contradicts what I was thinking, God, well, that means you're wrong in what you were thinking, and God is right. And you're the one who needs to change in your beliefs. Joseph had his own way of thinking here. God's revelation came crashing in on that, and gave him a very different vision of reality.

And Joseph chose to embrace God's revelation. That's what God's people do. And if you really want to be a humble person, then you will want to do the same, and allow God to crash in on your reality, and to tell you things that are opposed to your own thinking, to allow him to criticize you, and the way that you think. And if you've thought something all along, and God says, no, it's this way.

Well, your thinking needs to be, I will follow God rather than myself. We all know how many times have you in your past, been so sure you were thinking right, but with hindsight, you realize you were wrong. What have you done to merit such amazing trust in yourself, where you're like, I'll follow my own thinking rather than God's. That's crazy.

Timothy Keller says it, well, he says, when somebody says there are many things in the Bible, I just don't accept. I don't like them. I'm offended by them. I will believe the things in the Bible I can believe, and I will reject the things in the Bible I want to reject.

There are a lot of people who have that mentality. But he goes on to say this, if you have a view of the Bible like that, what I want to know from you, is how can God ever contradict you? How can God ever argue with you? How can God ever come after you and revise you?

How can you ever humble yourself under the Word of God? Do you really want a God who never disagrees with you? You hear people talk about yes men who just always say yes. Do you want a yes God?

Who just whatever you're thinking, he's like, oh, that's great. That's great. What's that show, Family Feud. No matter what lame answers people give, everyone's clapping.

Yeah, good answer, good answer. Before the buzzer sounds, no one ever thought of that answer. But I think people want that in God. They just want someone who says yes to everything that they say.

And in the end, they end up with a religion of their own making, that is no bigger than their pea-sized brain. And who wants that? And yet, there are many who have this mentality. Jodie Foster, the Hollywood actor says for me to accept a religion, it must embrace me and who I am without putting preconditions on what makes me whole.

I don't want a religion that tells me I'm broken. I don't want a religion that tells me how to be whole and puts preconditions on that. It's striking that she feels free to put preconditions on religions that she will find acceptable. But for religion to be acceptable to her, it cannot criticize her or put preconditions upon her wholeness.

We need to be Searching our own hearts to ask, are we guilty of the same? I know I can be guilty of just reading the Bible and picking and choosing sometimes what I want to focus on. It's like, oh, this, this makes me feel uncomfortable, and I'll just ignore that and I'll go read this other passage over here. This instinct is in me as well.

It's in all of us. But are we willing to let God's revelation come crashing in on our small worlds, our small notions of the truth? And let it revise us. And call us beyond our reason to something more fantastic and more amazing than anything our own reasoning would have ever arrived at.

We also observe here in this passage that Jesus was virgin born, and guys, that changes everything. It changes everything. And what it means is that he's entitled to be the one who gets to answer those questions. Where did I come from?

What's wrong with me and with this world? And what is the solution? let the virgin born one give you the answers to those questions and esteem his answers more important and more valid than any other answers that anyone would try to give you. There are so many people, a dime a dozen, who would love to be able to answer those questions for you.

Let Jesus, the virgin born one, answer those questions for you. And this virgin born one who has these amazing credentials, not only was he virgin born, he lived a perfect life. He died because he loved you so much. He died for your sins.

And then even after he died, He was raised from the dead and he's now at the right hand of God, ruling with authority from on high. He can do whatever he pleases. There's a lot of credentials there that entitles him to be the one that you would go to and say, Tell me where I came from. Tell me what's wrong with me and with the world, and tell me what the solution is.

Listen to his answer. And among his answers, Jesus says, You have a sin problem. You have a sin problem, and it's your most important problem. Your worst problem is not other people's sin.

Your worst marital problem is you, and it's your sin. It's your most important problem. Jesus, the virgin born one, tells you that. It's your most important problem, and you need to be rescued from your sin problem.

And then he says, and I came into this world to be the one to accomplish that rescue. Will you believe in him? Will you trust his wisdom? You may say, Well, I don't think I have a sin problem.

My issues are this other person and that person. It's my boss. It's my spouse. Lord, save me from this.

And he says, No, I'm going to contradict you here. Your worst problem is you, and it's your sin. And I came. To die for you, to die for your sins, and to rescue you from your sin.

Will you be humble enough to trust the virgin born one when he tells you that? That that's your problem. That's what you need to be saved from. And will you trust Him when He says, I came to save you, and I want to save you from that?

If you have never looked at Jesus and called upon Him and believed in His name to be your Savior from your sin, I call upon you today to look to Jesus in all humility. And cry out to Him. Believe in him and ask him to be your Lord and Savior. Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, you're an amazing savior, and your credentials are so abundant, and among them is you were a virgin born, everything about you is amazing. Everything. Help us to trust you more, to trust you more fully, more richly, to receive from your fullness more than we do. Help us to be done with lesser things and lesser authorities.

And may we look to you as we ought. I pray if there's any in this room that have never believed in You, Lord, that You would stir in their hearts. and direct them to you, quicken them, awaken them to see your beauty and your power and your love, your truthfulness, Lord, and help them to see their need and to believe in you. And give them the grace, Lord, if they have questions to come up to me afterwards or to anyone else that's here or to the table outside and talk to the people at that resource table and to get some help, some resources, Lord, we, we want to help them and so, just to open their hearts to the help that you want to provide them and that we would love to give them if they would be so kind and gracious and humble to allow that.

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive the funds that we give in this offering. and do much with every penny that is given for your glory and for the spread of this amazing message of the Savior who died for our sins, who loved us so much that he died. To be our Savior, Lord, no one has ever or could ever love us more than you have. You're the ultimately truthful one.

And the ultimately loving one, and we celebrate you. This morning Receive our gifts and receive our worship in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.